FBI can track dollars leaving Kazakhstan

In September this year, representatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Public Service and Anti-Corruption Agency of Kazakhstan met in Washington, DC, Tengrinews reports citing the press service of the anti-corruption agency.

Deputy Chairman of the Kazakh Anti-Corruption Agency Alik Shpekbayev and Deputy Assistant Director of the Criminal Investigative Division of the FBI Timothy Delaney discussed white collar corruption crimes, as well as Kazakh and foreign anti-corruption programs.

The FBI representative said that the Bureau was capable of tracking the dollars leaving Kazakhstan regardless of their destination.

During his meetings at the FBI’s and the US Department of Justice, Alik Shpekbayev spoke about the recent developments in the anti-corruption system of Kazakhstan - the oil-producing Central Asian country had implemented a number of reforms to reduce corruption in the areas where government officials interact with the population and companies. To improve the interaction, the list of public services available to population and companies was expanded, rules and standards of provision of the services determining civil servants' conduct were clarified.

The American partners praised the comprehensive approach of Kazakhstan to molding its anti-corruption system and noted that anti-corruption measures of both countries were similar. The officials agreed that corruption, for the most part, was a result of insufficient transparency in the work of state bodies; it decreased their efficiency and resulted in loss of the population's trust.

They expressed interest in deepening the bilateral strategic partnership through exchange of experience and information, coordination of investigations of corruption crimes in both countries and introducing education programs to raise ethical standards of Kazakh officials. Besides, the Americans expressed willingness to provide training to the staff of Kazakhstan's anti-corruption services.

While in the United States, Deputy Chairman of the Kazakh Anti-Corruption Agency also agreed to start bilateral consultations that Kazakhstan and the U.S. agreed upon back in February 2015 when signing the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty.

Alik Shpekbayev also visited Ottawa, according to Capital, to met Christine Donoghue, Acting President and Senior Vice-President for Policy Branch of the Public Service Commission of Canada, and Sally Thornton, Assistant Deputy Minister for Governance Planning and Policy Sector in the department of Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat.

Deputy Chairman of the Kazakh Anti-Corruption Agency discussed development and introduction of standards of civil service to define the norms of conduct and ethics for public servants with Sally Thornton.

"At the moment, the anti-corruption system of Kazakhstan is undergoing major transformations. Earlier, the system was mainly focusing on combating the consequences of corruption through toughening of punishments. (...) But the anti-corruption policies of our country have been significantly revised. The emphasis in countering corruption was shifted to prevention, and to getting the entire society to join the public efforts to minimize corruption," Alex Shpekbayev said.

And in his meeting with Christine Donoghue he discussed selection of candidates and Kazakhstan's new Ethics Code. "Unlike the existing code, the new Ethics Code sets clear ethical standards for civil servants, defines and systematizes their behavior under concrete circumstances, for instance in case of a conflict of interest," he said.